Adjusting filesystems with tune2fs

Fine Tuning

Article from Issue 179/2015
Author(s):

The advanced tune2fs command lets you check and modify the tunable parameters of ext filesystems.

Most users know that the Bash shell includes commands that change the attributes of files and directories, such as chown or chgattr. What is less well known is that filesystems have a single command for changing their attributes called tune2fs [1]. With large or multiple filesystems becoming the norm, tune2fs is an increasingly important command.

Tune2fs is bundled in e2fsprogs [2], a collection of utilities for administering ext2, 3, and 4 filesystems. Other members of e2fsprogs include e2fsck, which corrects inconsistencies, mk2fs for creating filesystems, and several defraggers. All are installed by default in most distributions.

To begin using tune2fs, you must log in as root. If you are unsure what filesystems are on your system, you can run fdisk -l to receive a list, because the options for tune2fs all require specifying a filesystem. To begin, you can list the attributes of a filesystem with

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